Talk:School of Salmon/@comment-31772644-20190417041019/@comment-1674153-20190417053936
Good as spot as any. Alright, allow me to rub my temples and go into one of my patented "what the actual fuck is this shit" explanations. Short Answer: It is totally possible for a school of salmon to survive 60+ years. They aren't the same fish, but the same family of fish. Long Answer: Okay, the thing about salmonids is they are AGGRAVATINGLY SELF-DESTRUCTIVE, like a lot of fish, while also being INCREDIBLY HARDY. It's a stupid little combination that makes them a fascinating study. For instance, did you know that the REASON that salmon die upon breeding is because they have starved themselves? Because their stomachs literally DISINTEGRATE upon reaching fresh water during spawning? They survive purely on stored fat and spite at that point, because when the stomach dissolves their body has more room to hold sperm and eggs. Side note, all of the salmon you have eaten are probably ocean-caught, due to them tasting disgusting when they are destroying themselves to breed. Go figure. So first, let me address the PLANNED reason that the school would thrive, under Dr. Satomora's vision. A salmon's life cycle is typically defined by what fresh water body they were born in, because it is to that body that the salmon will return to, assuming it migrated into the ocean and didn't accidentally end up spawning in non-familiar territory, which can happen. This is such a defining factor of salmonids that, in salmon study, scientists generally determine that salmons from different fresh-water bodies are considered genetically different enough to avoid inbreeding depressions - even if the fresh water bodies are ridiculously close to each other. Theoretically, these salmon would have perpetually been able to gain genetic material for the purpose of the school, and the school would have probably grown, because the fish were being trained through generations to spawn in places they themselves weren't originally spawned in with non-experimental salmon, but their spawn would coalesce in the same spot in the ocean. Thus, the genetic pool would always include fish from all over. How on EARTH would this plan be possible? I have no damn idea. Essentially I was playing with the idea of selective breeding, since Coho salmon only spend about 18 months in the ocean before returning to spawn. Ostensibly the good doctor got through maybe 13 or 14 generations of Coho before they were released. (Of course, this never would have actually worked, fish don't work like that. But Dr. Satomora dedicated decades of their life to the project. It had to work.) BUT, salmon do not need to migrate to breed, and indeed they don't always do so. In fact, landlocked atlantic salmon can actually survive after spawning, unlike all but 5% of female Pacific salmon, maybe because they have an ounce of common sense and don't DESTROY THEIR STOMACHS TO BREED, unlike these Pacific knuckleheads. And salmon put out a LOT of eggs, as I've alluded to - a female can put out nearly 2000 eggs in one spawning season! Which is good, because one is all she has. And since this school of fish is currently in captivity and spent 30+ years getting exterior genetic material, they aren't in danger (currently) of inbreeding depression. They may die off. Or I may make them immortal. Still workshopping. Trust me, I'm a whale biologist. So, this all begs the question, WHY does this very biological school of salmon work as an artifact if the fish keep going through their natural life cycles? Because Dr. Satomora made an artifact out of the school. Not the individual fish themselves. So long as the school exists, the artifact does. Insert sad jazz hands.